MMO shift to consoles "inevitable" says NCsoft's Chung

NCsoft North America's new president, Chris Chung, says that the shift of MMOs to consoles is inevitable.

Chung spoke to GameDaily about NCsoft's exclusive deal with Sony, noting that PC MMOs have to be optimised for home consoles.

"I think there are a lot of causes that factor into good MMOs on a console," he said.

"These are elements like 'Does the person have a standard definition TV or an HDTV?' You don't have a good a resolution on regular TV, and a lot of games were hurting for that."

Chung said that NCsoft's challenge is to create an experience that's suited for the PS3 and which also supports the MMO element.

"I think the shift is inevitable; real-time strategy is one of the last PC genres moving onto consoles, and I think we'll see a similar trend for online games as well."

Even so, Chung is aware that it won't be easy to create a title that can succeed in both the Korean and American markets - let alone globally.

"If you look across the entertainment market, there are very few things that can appeal across the whole world," he said. "There are cultural barriers that prevent this, and game development culture is no different.

"I really applaud World of Warcraft for being successful, but that is few and far between."